We each give our own meaning to life. Some of us may be unaware of what drives us onwards, or what holds us back, while others are yet busy questing for answers. I propose a method of gaining satisfaction out of your life, through the identification of emotions & needs, and the apparent conflicts that arise between them and your behavior.
This idea is presented in three short parts, each a necessary logical step on the way to culmination.
Part I - Priorities Among Emotions. Part II - Unidentified Emotions & Needs. Part III - Mismatching Behaviors and Emotions. Conclusion - How to Plan for Your Needs!
We can all recognize that some emotions take precedence over other emotions, or needs, at any given time. While this is a fluctuating phenomenon, its' patterns can be identified and described very well. For example, a hungry person who is exhausted and needs sleep, may feel a greater need for sleep than for feeding, and so will retire to bed.
However, we are not always able to clearly identify the emotions that most strongly direct us. And so, a person may feel tired, and even though they had planned on going directly to bed previously, find themselves guzzling down hamburgers at the kitchen table, at a very late hour.
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This mismatch between the behavior that person expected - being tired and thus going to sleep, and actually going to eat greedily, tells us that it is likely that they were simply unaware of their accumulating hunger, until they had finally reached their home. When the choice between food or sleep presented itself, the stronger emotion ruled the hour. The price to pay is in being unprepared for this turn of events, sleeping late, and even sleeping heavy.
Through this process of identifying such patterns, that person is then able to meditate on the conflict in needs - find out which emotions and needs were actually in conflict, and plan a future strategy to avoid the repercussions. Such strategy may be as simple as eating something earlier, or getting back home earlier. It is a process of trial and error, yet the solutions are usually simple, when we knowourselves, and then choose for ourselves, for best results.
Much thanks go to my friend Vins, who had spent several long hours today debating this topic with me, and negotiating how best to represent it in an orderly & thinker-friendly manner. :-)
Eleven was his name, and he was an elf. No, not a mythical creature of legends, but a person who likes to con and trick people.
"Mister, what is your name??" The little girl asked. Eleven looked down at her. She was as high as his knees.
"They call me... Eleven," he answered.
"Why do they call you Eleven?" She asked.
He turned his face away, toward the ceiling, in a rather dramatic fashion. "Eleven means courage. It is a very old word. It was the name of a great hero, once, many generations ago." He peeked back at the girl, seeing if it had the wanted effect. It did not, and she was already walking away, in fascination of the next dull thing.
"So, what do you have for me this time, Dougler?" Eleven asked back, business-like.
"Nobody calls me Douglar..." Jamison started to complain, but knew that it will not get through. "We are going to take a couple of items that mean a lot to my boss."
"Expensive items?"
"Expensive," Jamison lowered his voice, "and dangerous."
"Dangerous items?" Eleven smiled to himself. "How dangerous?"
"Have you ever had an entire planet going after you?" Jamison asked.
Eleven cocked his head, and stared at nothing for a long moment. "I have never had a planet know that I was there."
"Good. We are going to need invisibility, for this one. No one must figure out who we are, or who we are working for," Jamison warned, but received no emotional feedback.
The galactic crew occupying the prime transport vessel - the Cut Mink of the Coalition, sat down, planning their negotiations. The transaction was to take place on the host planet, Zigma Froy, a recently inhabited moon of Jupiter, where the Institute of Suspect Objects ran a museum and catalog, for the public to enjoy. It was entirely inhabited by alien artifacts.
"Have you arranged for the head of the Institute to meet us somewhere outside of the facility?" Captain Silvarre requested of his second in command, First Lieutenant Kirk.
"Aye captain!" Kirk saluted firmly. Silvarre glanced at him from the corner of his eye, sitting on his captain's chair, and continued nibbling on his simulated-wood pipe. A few long moments later, Kirk removed his hand from his forehead, and Silvarre decided not to mention the error in saluting a pirate. Kirk might have his quirks, but he still was the best of them.
The plan was, as Captain Silvarre put it, "to distract the dogs with the cats, while the rats steal the cheese." While the transaction was to take place, officially, hand Jamison and his chosen trustee will retrieve the two most expensive artifacts. The Cut Mink is out of suspicion, as they were innocently doing official business at the time with the Institute, and yet Silvarre gains a much desired card to play with, in this ancient game of trade.
Eleven stared at the customs official, a private agent of the ISO company, who's soul purpose was to figure out if any person was attempting to smuggle artifacts in or out of the planet. Eleven was a straightforward kind of guy. He did not smile or flatter. He simply stated his lies, and expected you to accept them, as they are, and without question.
"Anything to declare?" The customs officer asked.
"No," Eleven answered, waiting for that specific response used in queues; a nod that means, 'Move along.'
"Anything to declare?" The customs officer asked Jamison.
"No," Jamison answered, trying to mimic his companion's sternness. The officer looked him up and down, saw that Eleven was a couple of steps ahead, waiting, and said, "Okay. Next!"
At the back entrance to the Institute of Suspect Objects' grand museum, the two waited, staring at the locked door. This was where those most rare and strictly guarded items stood on display; specifically, those items that they had come to steal.
"Tsk," Jamison noisily badgered. "What now? Let's just enter from the main entrance."
"Cats do not go from the door, Jamison. Only dogs do so," Eleven retorted, without turning his eyes from the door. The door opened. Out of it, came a guard followed by a janitor robot. "Excuse me!" Eleven shouted at the guard, and hurried forward.
"The main entry is that wa..."
"We just accidentally got out through this door, but it locked on us. Can you let us back in, sir?" Eleven's posture and mannerism hinted at a confused customer, the sort of customer that found a hair in their sandwich, and instead of shouting and complaining, simply returned the item back quietly, and quietly mentioned the problem.
"Oh," the guard looked at Jamison. What he saw, however, was a well-dressed gentleman, and not a thief. "Of course, come in, and make sure you do not get lost again."
"Yes, we will stay with the guide this time," Eleven smiled, grabbed Jamison's hand, and entered hurriedly.
They both had prepared for this well in advanced, memorizing a map of the compound, and where their targets lay. "Easy enough," Jamison whispered.
"Easy for you to say, newbie," Eleven grunted back, quietly.
"What is so difficult about this?"
"This part," Eleven paced up through the artifact filled corridor, and approached another guard, standing at the next door. As the guard moved to open his mouth, Eleven struck him in the face with an unidentified black object, and quickly began removing his own outfit.
"Oh," Jamison noted.
"Take his outfit off. While I am getting the artifacts, you can put together the cart," Eleven removed a few long black sticks from his jacket, and gave them to Jamison. Jamison stared at the parts, figured they were a stick-each-stick-into-the-other-stick kind of puzzle, and began working.
Within a minute, Eleven was back out with the two items, each under each arm. One looked like a big musical wind instrument, and the other had the shape of a sharp weapon. In reality, however, they both knew that the tube looking item was an explosive weapon, and the other just a harmless alien toy.
"Do not press the red button," Jamison said in humor.
"The Imploder requires a sequence of air thrusts to activate, which humans are unable to perform, without specialty tools," Eleven explained. Somehow, Jamison was certain that Eleven kept on him just the kind of 'specialty tool' that was required for its' activation, and shuddered.
The alien Imploder was notorious for creating bloody scenes, wherein people lost their skin and eyeballs, but remained alive just long enough to notice that new and surprising prickly sensation.
Finally, Jamison had the cart prepared, and after carefully locking the items down magnetically, they started moving back to where they had come from. Each put a hand to push the cart forward. Considering how small the artifacts were, it had a heavy pull to it.
"I know you don't like to get your hands dirty, but this really was nothing special," Jamison gestured. "These clowns can't even get their attack-bots to work."
"This is still the hard part," Eleven answered, turning back to face the silent creeping machines that had almost reached them, and clicked a red button on a joystick-looking gizmo. Two of the bots dropped from the ceiling, but a third kept on crawling towards them. "Your turn," Eleven said.
Jamison, who had been expecting at least some sort of a melee with machines, took out an arrow, aimed it at the single machine, now only a few feet away, threw it, and turned back - still pushing the cart.
"What was that?" Eleven asked, able to hear the bot jingling, as its' parts were detaching from its' main body.
"Uranium Action Darts," Jamison said, and grinned widely. "Unidentified, rare, and most of all, efficient against bots. It emits a radioactive wave that destabilizes a..."
"I am going to borrow a couple, eh."
"Sure, buddy. You know I got your back," Jamison said, still grinning. It was a joy to work with the best tools, after all.
As they entered their escape vessel, a compact and efficient evasion pod, the air pressure started to increase.
"Airzers?" Jamison asked, covering his ears with his hands, in pain.
"Airzers," Eleven answered, clicked his earlobes to activate his anti-pressure buttons, and started the pod away. It was a shaky ride, but this pod was custom designed to outmaneuver this planet's specific Airzer technology.
Airzer. Definition: Gravitational laser beams that condense the atmosphere in a given radius, causing great harm to unprotected living tissue, while interrupting the ability of any vessel to detach from the surface, as it attempts lift-off.
By the time any meaningful pursuit had begun, their pod had changed colors, changed visible shape, changed licensing transmissions, and was gaining miles away from the planet's exosphere. The Institute's control center, now at turmoil, had its' deputy at a loss.
"We lost their signature, Commander," the guard said, still looking at the data screen.
"Inform the boss. It has to be those space-damned pirates!"
Suzuryu Jupitas, the head and owner of the ISO, grimaced. Captain Silvarre, surrounded by a posse of dangerous looking space-pirates, now enjoyed years of practicing his poker face.
"The Amalgamator and the Syphon?" Jupitas confirmed, over audio, not using any visible device.
"Is something the matter?" Silvarre inquired politely. Jupitas did not respond, nor look at him.
"I see," Jupitas ended the invisible conversation. "Two men," he began saying, "not locals," by which he meant not inhabitants of Zigma Froy, "had just left the exosphere with some very valuable artifacts, Captain Silvarre."
"You would not mean the artifacts that we have been discussing, Mr. Jupitas?" The captain asked back, the innocence of a child on display.
"Some of them, apparently. Two that we have counted."
"Well," Silvarre hesitated, "I am sorry to be so blunt, but you do realize that this is going to change the price we were negotiating," he declared.
Eleven is his name, and reticence is his profession. He is not a pirate, and not because he disrespects their work, or public image in society. He prefers the quiet and efficiency of working alone. The safety of not having to count on others.
"You know, Dougler..." Eleven began.
Jamison opened one sleepy eye, and looked to his right, where Eleven was sat.
"You are very cunning, but not quite deliberate. Do you know why the customs official would rather bother you, than me?"
"Because you're a scary motherfu..."
"Because he knew that if he had badgered me, I would have noted his name and appearance, and some day, when all is forgotten, he would see me again. Maybe on his way back from work. Going back home, I suppose. And then, Dougler, he would regret his past choice of badgering me."
"You would keep a grudge for so long?" Jamison asked, sleepily.
"No, I would not. I would just keep even," Eleven mended, and returned to reading privately, from his own internal display.
I recently got a cheap headset, for use while chatting with friends online. It has Bluetooth, so it is a bit more comfortable than handling wired headphones; or earphones in my case.
Annoyingly, the phones are a bit small, putting pressure on my ears. This causes pain, after a while of use. I Googled, and saw that some people replaced their pads - also known as cushions - with those from a muffler. That is a cool idea! But, I did not feel like wasting more money on this...
It's really, really simple.
So, I just hacked it, myself. As you can see in the photo above, I simply removed the cushions, took the foam out, cut it - to allow more space for the ears, and returned it all back in place.
I cut the inside stitching to remove the foam, and left it open, and used my Leatherman's flat-head screwdriver, to assist with joining the fake-leather cover on the plastic base, again. :-)
Admittingly, the phones are still not very comfortable. This is only a small fix. A patch of sorts. However, until I get a better & more expensive headset, this definitely helps!
Have you ever found yourself getting upset at someone online?
Let us begin by defining what a troll is, and what a troll is not!
An internet troll is a person, who finds great pleasure in upsetting other people online, and does so intentionally.
However, unlike an ignorant person, who resorts to abusive behavior when somebody "makes them" upset, an internet troll has no emotional context to the conversation, and only trolls out of pure entertainment.
The troll is having fun, at someone's expense, and so at no point in the conversation will they hold a grudge towards you, or anybody else.
Reversely, a douchebag is abusing people exactly because they are upset, and want to make everybody else just as miserable. The douchebag will hold a grudge, usually, even long after the conversation.
Are all trolls evil then?
Human societies are composed of many different individuals, and supposedly, each and every one has a natural function that helps balance the group.
Internet Fact #2: Comments are easy.
Surprisingly, when asked, many trolls will admit to trolling. They might say, "I am just trolling lol", and expect other people to realize that they had played a sort of clownish devil's advocate role.
Comedy is one of those grey social areas. A phrase can be funny today, and utterly offensive tomorrow. One joker can be fun & friendly, while another can be abusive & bullying.
Wait a second... Then how can I tell whether a troll is a good guy or a bad guy?
You see, trolling is an artform. Trolling is not a sadist hobby, unless that troll is also a sadist. Many trolls are definitely not sadists, even if they do sometimes cross the line of inconsideration.
Internet Fact #3: Everything online is true.
The answer is simple, really. A good guy will be honest about trolling, even as soon as they begin trolling. Otherwise, you can just ask them, and clarify their intentions; whether they are being serious, or just having hazardous fun in a fragile situation.
Other than that, there really is no important difference between an honest idiot who will abuse you, and a witty troll who abuses you maliciously. In both cases, that other person is a douchebag, and better be avoided.
I want to thank all the good fellows over at the Freedomain Radio community, for inspiring me to write about these personal experiences. :=}
Here is a quick photo, just so you can see how my setup looks.
[Click the image for a larger display.]
I used screws and some cotton rope, to hold the echo-cancelling sheet around me, from the ceiling. For the echo-cancelling frills, I used a similar sheet, which I nailed into the shelf, and then used scissors to cut it into nice & accessible frills. :=D And finally, I shoved my netbook into the drawer, and sawed a hole for cables, so that I get some quiet, when recording.